A little tutorial...

And now, in response to the over-whelming demand, I will give a little tutorial on how to build a casket saddle.  (Fine.  No one asked.  So what?)

First I go to the wholesaler and pick out the flowers and bring them home wrapped in brown paper.  Like this...

Then you go get the buckets that you used last week and were too lazy to wash out.

Cleaning out the buckets...ugh!  I hate it!  It is without question the worst part of doing flowers.  But it is a necessary evil to turn the above into the below.

Then you have to go back the the basement (again!) because you forgot the floral preservative and your clippers.  Yes, the preservative is necessary!  No, it doesn't matter that you'll be using the flowers the next day.  (Thank you for asking!)

Then you have to process the flowers.  This can be tremendously tedious depending on the type of flower.  On all of them you have to cut away the cellophane wrap and clip off the elastics.  On some you can then just clip the bottoms off quickly and shove - er, delicately place - the flowers in the buckets of water.  On others (roses, for example) you have to go through every single stem - One. By. One. - and strip the petals and thorns before putting them in.  On any kind of flower you can't have foilage below water level because they spoil the water.  Depending on how many flowers you are working through, this one facet of the project can take hours!  It is also horrible!!  Unfortunately, it is also necessary.

Then you're left with the packaging...

Then you have to go to the basement AGAIN because you forgot a bucket for the oasis.

Then you put the oasis in the saddle....

The bluriness of this next picture is NOT a reflection of a lack of importance of this step.  I forgot this step one time and I feel confident that I'll NEVER make the same mistake again!  You forget these two seemingly small strips of tape and you can kiss your saddle goodbye!!

Then you forget that you're supposed to be taking pictures as you go and finish the whole thing.

Voila!  Casket saddle for a female in white and shades of blue.

I Love Lucy

Recently I was asked to do an arrangement for a little one-year-old angel named Lucy.  Her mother loves owls, so we decided an owl-themed arrangement would be appropriate.

There are several choices when it comes to easle arrangements.  In the end we went with a solid heart-shaped oasis.  After soaking the oasis is preservative water, I was here...

Then I started adding flowers and greenery.  The customer wanted bright pink and bright green.  I emphasized the pink by doing a sash of bright pink roses.

I added in more of the green roses and the white lilies.

The finishing touch was an owl and love note.  When the client came to pick it up I was lamenting to her that they didn't have a girl-colored owl.  She suggested adding a bow and had left-over ribbon from something else the family had done.  (Definitely one of those, "Why didn't I think of that?" moments!")  I had recommended the card message and she loved it. 

All in all I think it turned out cute and (as always) hoped it gave the family some comfort!

The Funeral I Didn't Want To Do

I was honored and thankful to be able to help in some small way, but I never wanted to have the do the flowers for my friend's husband. The funeral was last Friday and it was one of the best funerals I have ever been to in my life!! It was amazing!! Here are two of the things I made for it:

Funerals are so much better!

My dear friend passed away a couple months ago. Doing the flowers for her funeral was a great reminder of why I prefer doing funeral flowers rather than wedding flowers. Here are my top 10 reasons why doing funeral flowers is better than wedding flowers:

10. BIG pieces - not a million little corsages and bouts. Other than the bouts and corsages for family and pall bearers, it's all big stuff.

9. No time for being picky or changing your mind. Sharron's family called me about 9pm on Wednesday night. I picked up the flowers Thursday and built that day and the next. Drove them down Friday for the viewing that night and funeral the next day.

8. People are open to my ideas. They generally haven't spent a bunch of time planning every detail of the flowers (like they do with a wedding), and even if they have given it some thought I can usually give some creative input. Sharron's was a great mixture of stuff the family wanted and ideas I was able to bring to the table.

Her hubby wanted this arrangement of 44 long-stemmed red roses with standard greenery and baby's breath (her favorite arrangement) to recognize their 44 years of marrige.

Her daughter wanted this all white with greenery arrangement. She had seen a picture of something similar and fell in love with it.

With a white casket with pink interior, I was able to recommend different flowers that come in all different shades of pink for the casket saddle.

7. You get to use the flowers as an outlet to honor the person. Wedding flowers are rarely personalized. In fact, the only time I think I've ever personalized wedding flowers was for my cousin. Thank heaven she was NOT your typical bride!!

6. Because all people are different, the creative possibilities are endless! No cookie cutter arrangements (ie. Floating flowers in a bowl. Ugh! I am so over that!!)

Sharron was always saying "Bummer," so some of her grand kids called her "Bumma". The older ones called her the more text-friendly "Gma". So I made this wreath that says "Bumma" on top...


...and "Gma" down inside the heart...

The gerber daisies represented her grandchildren - all white for the grand sons, white with pink centers for the grand daughters. Then after the whole thing was over they each took "their" gerber daisy out and took it with them as a little keepsake.

5. You get to use your skill to comfort people who stand in need of comfort. And isn't that one of the best reasons we're here?

4. The family can preserve the flowers afterward to create mementos of their loved one to keep forever. You can preserve them intact and make shadowboxes with pictures and other keepsakes. You can disassemble the flowers and press them to use on bookmarks or other such items.

3. You get to constantly incorporate new ideas as you meet new people with new personalities.

2. People are so traumatized over their loss that they are thrilled with whatever you make! No bridezillas greeting you at the door picking over everything you've made!!

1. When someone I love passes, or someone that I love loses someone they love, I can do the flowers as a service to them to show my love and appreciation for them. When my cousin died I learned that in a time of trial everyone just needs to do whatever it is they can do. And if we all do that, then all the bases are covered. Everyone has something different to offer. So as long as we all give of ourselves, then everything works out.

And Speaking of Personalization...

I did the flowers for this funeral and it was such a tender experience! The family wanted to personalize everything. It was for a female, but they wanted it very naturalistic. I think it turned out perfectly. The casket saddle was filled with Yellow and Confetti Roses, Cattails, leaves, Hypericum (Coffee) Berries, and so much more.

The family wanted to do an easel piece from the nieces and nephews, whom their dear aunt referred to as "My Littles". The Gerber Daisies were color coded - orange for one gender, yellow for the other. Then little tags with each of their names were attached to "their" daisy. Besides how cute this looks, another nice thing is that after the funeral and graveside service is over, each person can take their flower and press it or whatever they want to have as a keepsake.

Frogs was one of her favorite things. So I did this piece to celebrate that. Galax leaves were used as make-shift lily pads and little rubber frogs were wired on. It turned out so great! The container used here is a mache container. This line comes in off-white with natural flecks, this bright green, and dark brown. I use them constantly! They are versatile, look great in so many different settings, and are CHEAP!

Saying Goodbye to a Cowboy

Funerals are far and away my preference, as far as what I like to do with flowers goes. I have found that you can bring a lot of comfort to a family by customizing the pieces to fit that exact person. Everyone has things about them that makes them unique and there is no reason why those traits can't be celebrated in the floral work.

I had the opportunity to do the flowers for the funeral for this handsome cowboy. It was such a treat to use his hat, lariat, and other small trinkets that aren't as visible in this picture in the Casket Saddle. When people see the flowers with these personal touches they are especially moved.

The matching easel arrangement looked like a huge bundle of wild flowers bound together with straw string. Small wood pieces that represented things he loved were painted brown and placed throughout the arrangement. The big wooden letters spelling DAD look WAY better than those HORRID gold or silver letters stapled on paper ribbon. (Whose brilliant idea were those pieces of junk anyway? They look terrible!)

When you are planning and executing a funeral, everything you can do to personalize it will only be that much more comforting. When I hear about people going into a florist and picking something out of a book, ("I think F-145 looks nice.") I just want to cringe! Truly personalization brings peace in a time of sorrow!